Parallel Prower
by Lenard
Summary: New Title  Tails and his friends discover that someone's been causing a scene in Station Square. This mysterious figure happens to look identical to Tails and everyone begins to question him. Mainly TailsxCream, subtle views of other pairings.
1. Gift of Friendship

**Chapter 1: Gift of Friendship**

"_Looking up at the sky... always seemed to have a calming effect on me... especially clear sunny days like today..._" The young fox thought to himself, "_The sky always seems to set my mind at ease, takes me away from my worries and work, and leaving me peacefully with my thoughts. Sure, my inventions always have me thinking, but not like this. My inventions seem to always get me overworked, and mad at times when I can't seem to get something just the way I want it. Even when I'm finally able to get something just right, I feel proud of myself; but when I'm looking into the sky, I don't have to worry about inventing, or fixing anything, and I can just relax and think about anything I want. Cream always said I should do this more often._"

Tails continued staring up into the sky, thinking back on everything that has happened ever since the day Sonic left. Yep, Sonic moved out of the city with his new family several years ago. It's not like Sonic and Tails were truly separated though, Sonic could be by him in a matter of minutes, or possibly even seconds; if he ever wanted to visit. He was the worlds fastest hedgehog after all. Tails understood though, Sonic was just growing up. He finally settled down with her, Amy Rose, and had a child of their own eventually. Tails knew it was the right thing in the end, despite that, he was still surprised when he first heard about it several years ago, none the less he was still very happy for them both. Cream, being herself, was absolutely thrilled when she first heard of them and congratulated both of them on it. Everyone else though, it was hard to say.

Knuckles knew about it, but never mentioned what he thought of it. Tails knew somehow though, despite whatever little grudges he may or may not have had with Sonic, Tails knew inside, that Knuckles was happy for them. As for Rouge or Shadow, no one had a clue, for they haven't been seen in a long time. I guess it was because everything seemed to be more at peace. Through out all of the past adventures, the three heroes always ran into them when something was going on, that usually included a plot by Dr. Robotnik to gather the seven emeralds for his own selfish needs. The thing is though, He hasn't shown himself for as long as those two. Though it seemed kind of nice for them, they would never forget about the doctor. It's been so long though, longer than usual, maybe he finally settled down? Even when he didn't show up he was a pain, it's hard to relax knowing he could strike at any minute, but it's been so long, a few years maybe.

Tails didn't want to think about it though, all that mattered was now, and right now he was relaxing. There he layed, in the quiet tranquility of the land and ocean of where his workshop was built by... well besides with the train station not to far from there. It didn't bother him too much, he didn't hear it that often anyhow. Speaking of such, Tails staring at the sky, as he heard the train coming in. He figured it was just more people exploring the Mystic Ruins. Not a lot of people came around the Mystic Ruins anymore, but it didn't really bug Tails anyhow. Tails didn't really talk to many of the people that came by, he barely talked to most of his friends... well except for Cream. In the years that passed by, Tails grew closer to Cream, as well as Cream to Tails. They were practically, if not, the best of friends. They had the time to get to know each other better, and a chance to visit each other often and play together when they were younger up to now. They've been friends for seven years, ever since they first met when they were six and eight. Now, they were both fifteen and thirteen, and they felt much closer to each other then when they were younger. Tails smiled at the thought, and sat up on the grass, staring out at the ocean.

Tails was startled after feeling a hand on his shoulder, and when he turned around to see who it was, Cream was kneeling next to him with a smile.

"Did I startle you?" Cream giggled.

"Not really..." Tails lied, but with a smile on his face. Cream really wasn't that different as others might think a child would after becoming a teenager. Cream was still her sweet and loveable self; with a caring heart and also with her chao Cheese, who didn't look like he aged a day since Tails first seen him. Cream wore practically the same outfit she did when she was six, except a bit longer and with her dress, she wore matching red orange pants with it.

Cream sat down next to Tails and said, "So what are you doing out here. I thought you'd be working on something."

"There hasn't been much to fix. The Tornado hasn't been damaged or in battle for so long, there's nothing to really fix on it. I just tinker with some of the other inventions. Well I have been working on something incase I need it, but not yet so far." Tails explained.

"What would that be?" Cream asked.

"I don't want to say... it's uh... a secret." Tails said.

"Oh really?" Cream raised a brow.

"Yeah... it's purpose is for defense in battle..." Tails said.

Cream nodded and just left it at that, "Oh, all right." Tails looked out at the ocean again, smiling. He was kind of happy that Cream decided to stop by. Tails turned his head at Cream and noticed that Cheese wasn't with her at the moment.

"Cheese at the garden?" Tails asked.

Cream nodded, "He wanted to play with some of his friends, so I dropped him off there after getting off the train."

"You took the train?" Tails said and thought about it, "Oh, you were on the train when it got here, right?"

Cream smiled, "Yep! I know you're thinking, I could of flew here, but I thought it'd be faster to take the train."

Tails tilted his head, "Any particular reason you wanted to get here so quickly?"

Cream faced him with a bright smile, "To see you of course, why else would I come out here... well besides the chao garden, but there isn't a time I haven't come to see you after stopping at the chao garden."

Tails' face turned a bit red with what she said, "...Thanks Cream." Tails couldn't help but feel happy that she said that. What confused him was what made him so happy to hear that, and from Cream. Tails looked out back at the ocean once again. He was always happy when Cream came out here, and just to see him. It kind of made him feel bad. For one thing, he didn't visit Cream nearly half as much as she did him. She understood that he always was working in his workshop and everything, but that didn't stop him from feeling a little guilty for it.

Tails sat there thinking about it until she spoke, "Tails?"

Tails snapped out of it and looked at Cream, "Sorry."

Cream giggled, "Your mind seems to b quite occupied with something... is something the matter?"

Tails shook his head in response, "No no... well not really anyway, it's nothing."

Cream gave an odd, but somewhat concerned look, "Tails..."

Tails looked at her for a moment and sighed, "Well, I was just thinking, you visit me all the time. I don't visit you nearly close to the number of times you visit me."

Cream broke out in a miniature giggle fit and said, "Tails, it's really no problem. I know how busy you can be. If anything I should be guilty for visiting you so much. I probably interrupt your work all the time."

Tails shook his head, "Don't be ridiculous Cream, it's always a plessure to have you visit, you're always welcome to come at anytime."

Creams turn for a slight blush. She was happy to hear him say that, flattered.

She looked at him and smiled, "Thank you Tails, the same goes for you."

Tails nodded, "Great._I'll just be sure to visit more._"

Cream smiled and pulled out something from her pocket, "Here, I got you something." She handed him a small gift box with orange wrapping and a white bow on top. Tails looked at the gift, a little suprised by it.

"Cream you don't have to give me anything, I wouldn't feel right taking anything from you." Tails said not taking the gift.

Cream frowned, "Please Tails, I got it for you... think of it like a gift of friendship."

Tails looked at Cream for a moment and thought about it, then eventually taking the gift, "Thank you, Cream..." Creams face instantly brightened up as Tails took the gift. Tails tore off the ribbon and began unwrapping the gift. He took off the top of the box and from the box pulled out his gift.

"A cell phone?" Tails said a little surprised looking at his gift.

Cream nodded, "Yep! What do you think?"

Tails looked all around his cell phone, still not understanding why. "I don't get it, why would a cell phone be a gift of our friendship?"

"Don't you understand? With a cell phone, we can talk to each other anytime we're not together!" Cream explained cheerfully. Tails was more surprised now then he was when he first saw his gift. She really wanted to talk to him that much? Most of the time they were most likely hanging out. Tails smiled at the thought, he knew they were close friends, but he didn't know she'd want to talk to him so much.

Tails smiled, but was still not satisfied, "That's really sweet Cream, thank you... didn't this cost you a lot? Wouldn't I need to get a plan and..."

Cream shook her head and cut him off saying, "Don't worry about it Tails, I said it was a gift of friendship, it doesn't matter how much it was, I have everything worked out, I promise."

Tails still felt bad for receiving such a gift, "I don't have anything to give you in return..."

She giggled once again, "You still don't get it Tails, it's a gift. I don't want anything from you except your friendship."

He stared at her for a moment and smiled, "That's what I want from you too..."

Cream leaned over to Tails and hugged him, "I'm glad..." Tails was very confused on how Cream was acting. He knew how kind and caring she could be, but he really didn't expect her to do something like this as well as what she said. Tails figured she was just really happy for their bond throughout the years.

Tails eventually hugged her back, "Me too..."

Cream eventually broke the hug, but stayed right next to him and asked, "Should I show you how to use your cell phone?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll figure it out. I think all I would need is your number; I mean you got a cell phone too right?" Tails responded and asked her.

Cream grinned, "Don't worry about it. I put my number in before I wrapped it up. It also has the numbers of Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles there as well."

Tails was a bit shocked to hear Knuckles on there, but decided to wait to ask him about it later if he got to talk to him.

"Great," Tails said, "call me anytime."

Cream smiled, "Same goes for you too." As they were talking, Cheese flew up to the two of them, and landed on Cream's lap. Cream looked down at her little friend and rubbed his head. "I think someone's ready to go home, it is getting pretty late as well." she said getting up from her spot along with Tails, holding onto Cheese.

"I didn't realize how late it was getting, I guess the day just flew by." Tails said looking out at the sudden sunset.

Cream smiled, "It was nice seeing you again Tails, we'll see you again tomorrow if that's all right with you."

Tails nodded, "Of course it is, anytime." After saying their good byes, Cream was back on her way home. Tails kept her eyes on her, until she was near the train and boarded once again back to Station Square. Tails smiled as he made his way back to his home. He turned his head to the train as it began to depart, with Cream aboard it. Tails pulled out his new cell phone and browsed through the numbers of the others. He decided that he would make a few calls to them tomorrow, and decided for now to mess around with his cell phone, to give him something to do until the time he decided to go to bed. Unexpectedly, his phone started to ring. He checked to see who was calling. Creams number and name lit up on the screen. Tails blinked, "Well, that was certainly quick."

**Yay, I am back with a new story. Sorry about not writing anything for a while. My other story of Shippo I will still continue on, don't worry. I just wanted to try something new for right now. I hope everyone enjoys this new story. **


	2. Test Run

**[Fixed up some grammar and spelling errors, changed a few descriptions and paragraphs a bit]**

**[New story and chapter title, I thought they were both more appropriate]**

**I take no credit in the creation of the characters or universe represented here. Only the story.**

**Chapter 2: Test Run**

Tails was reading a text message from his new cell phone after just finishing calling back a few of his friends. The most difficult of all of them to call was Sonic. Tails was perplexed why until he decided to call Amy. She was talking about how she's been, listing off most of her daily activities. Tails guessed that about 50% of her daily routine was calling, texting, or in some other method: Trying to get in contact with Sonic. Tails chuckled to himself at that thought. He knew that the both of them were much closer as time moved forward, but for Sonic it seems that old habits die hard.

After talking with her, he decided again to keep trying to get in contact with Sonic. Again, he could not reach him right away and decided to try Knuckles. Knuckles said he was 'busy' and couldn't talk long. He heard a feminine voice in the background and guessed that Rouge was with him again. Rouge and Knuckles were pretty close, but whenever everyone got together and did anything fun; they'd get the most competitive with each other. Knuckles was still doing what he was best known for: Guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island. Rouge is usually there once in awhile to keep him company, and sometimes Sonic and Tails, and maybe Cream or Amy fly up there with the Tornado to just meet up and chat. Sonic and Knuckles' relationship has improved and they seem more like friends rather than rivals like back then. Again, sometimes old habits die hard.

Finally after a few more tries Tails was able to get in contact with Sonic for the first time it what felt like years. He was happy to be hearing from one of his best friends and surrogate brother again. Sonic apologized to Tails for the amount of times he had to call him to get in contact with him. He explained the already obvious reason for almost never turning on his phone and once again Tails chuckled to himself. Amy and him have such a strange relationship, he assumed he'd never understand it no matter how much time passed. As they were starting to catch up and chat, a call bleeped in from Sonic's side, guessing that it was probably Amy. Sonic quickly explained that he had to go for now, but would meet up with him later at his workshop. Satisfied enough with that answer, Tails said his goodbyes and just as he was about to call his gift bearer, a text popped up on his phone from said person.

[Hey, I'm on the train on my way to the Mystic Ruins. I figured I would tell you now instead of scaring you again, hehe.] Tails laughed to himself and began typing back a reply to Cream.

[I appreciate it. =P] Tails sent his message and put away his cell phone for the time being. He decided to come out from the garage of his house and took with him a peculiar looking outfit. The outfit was a two piece, mechanical looking outfit that consisted of mostly an overall blue color with some white lines stretching from the body to the sleeves and leggings. His infamous twin-tailed logo was placed squarely in the center at the chest of the outfit. This outfit went along with his newly modified gloves and shoes, which he wanted to test out at the moment before Cream arrived.

Tails stepped outside and stood overlooking the landscape of the Mystic Ruins. Tails began to just walk at his normal speed, towards an open area of the ruins that eventually would lead near the waterfall and train station. Tails began to quicken his pace steadily until he was running at his normal speed. His tails began to spin rapidly, like a propeller in accordance to his rapidly increasing speed. As he hit his maximum running speed, his shoes began to kick in and he slowly and slightly began to ascend from the ground. During this process, his speed begin to increase more and more, running far more quickly than he has ever been able to run.

_It-It's working! This is amazing! If I'm correct this could give me the potential to run almost as fast, if not FASTER than Sonic or Shadow! _Tails thought happily to himself. Already nearing the train station, Tails hesitantly halted himself from his running speed and nearly stopped on a dime and safely back on his feet to the ground. "As far as I can tell, this test was a complete success!" He declared happily. Since the train hasn't arrived at the station quite yet Tails decided to give it another go, and began running back towards his workshop.

As he started running back, a certain blue blur jumped from the tracks of the train station and ran down, nearing closer to the running teenage fox. It took a moment but the blue blur was able to catch up neck and neck to Tails and grinned.

"Well well, someone's been running a lot more lately, huh bro?"

"Sonic!" Tails cheerfully exclaimed, "I didn't think you'd be dropping in right away!"

Sonic grinned, "Would you expect anything less from the world's fastest hedgehog? I see that someone's trying to take that title away."

Tails sweatdropped, nearly tripping at his high speeds and stopped, nearing his workshop. "I'm not a hedgehog Sonic.. I think I'll go for world's fastest fox though, if you don't mind."

Sonic rounded around the house and appeared behind Tails leaning up against his house and smiling, "Sounds good. I can guess that this extra boost in your speed is from your Shadow-like shoes."

"A keen observation, Sonic. You see, I deduced that Shadow's speed was able to match yours due to the technological aspects of his shoes.." Tails began to explain, going more and more into detail as Sonic began to zone out due to his 'techno-babble' as he'd refer it as. Sonic looked up and saw someone out in the distance walking from the train station up to the workshop.

"..and then I tweaked it a little to go into hover mode at my specific running style and speed. I was thinking about maybe-" Tails continued to explain before Sonic suddenly cut him off, with one hand atop his eyes peering out in the distance.

"Hey buddy, I think you have another visitor heading this way, it kind of looks like Cream." Tails turned around to see the oncoming visitor and smirked a little bit. In a flash, Tails was off in his newly found speed out towards Cream.

Cream saw a burst of dirt and dust shooting up from the ground from a distance, naturally assuming that Sonic was just departing from Tails' workshop. As the blur came closer and closer, Cream quickly turned her head to the left from a natural reflex, expecting Sonic to zoom past her and she'd wave him off. Cream had her hand ready, but noticed that nothing went by her and stood in confusion.

"Hi Cream!" Tails exclaimed happily. Cream jumped in surprise and jerked her head forward to see that Tails was suddenly standing right in front of her.

"T-Tails!" Cream exclaimed clutching her chest, feeling her heartbeat pick up and her breathing picking up.

"Oops, I guess I should of sent you a text to be aware that I was going to come see you quick, huh?" Tails said sarcastically with a smile and winked at her. Cream still was a little confused on what exactly just happened and how exactly Tails just seemed to appear out of no where. Starting to recover from her little shock, she crossed her arms and stared at him with half lidded eyes.

"Oh ha ha, very funny Tails." She stared at him with a false unpleased look then started to smile and giggle a little bit, not being able to keep up her charade.

Tails joined her along in a laugh a little bit, "Sorry Cream, I couldn't help it."

"Using your new found speed for tricks? That's pretty sneaky Tails." Sonic said as he stood behind Cream.

"Eep!" Cream jumped up in front of Tails and looked back at the hedgehog that seems to have appeared behind her, once again in shock.

"That's just overkill, Sonic!" Tails laughing a hearty laugh along with Sonic with Cream now starting to grow a little irritated.

"That wasn't very funny Mis-S-Sonic.." Cream pouted, "I'm already recovering from nearly going into shock." Cream's smile grew a little bit and asked innocently, "There's.. no one else that's going to appear out of no where is there? I think I'm going to faint if I end up being spooked once more.."

Sonic chuckled and shook his head, "No worries, just me and Tails here." he said as he pointed behind her. It was then she realized she was unusually close to her two-tailed friend and stepped away a bit.

"S-sorry Tails" Cream said a little hesitantly.

"It's okay, no big d-deal Cream." Tails said trying to act casual and cleared his throat. "Anyway, sorry again about scaring you.. twice. It wasn't apart of my plan for Sonic to join in as well."

Sonic grinned and ruffled Tails' bangs and began walking towards the workshop, "I'll let myself in if you don't mind, buddy. You two take your time coming in."

"No problem, Sonic." Tails and Cream waved him off and decided to walk back towards the house themselves.

Cream blinked, "Tails.. how exactly were you able to get here so fast? When I was beginning to walk down to your house there was no one around here."

Tails smiled and pointed down at his shoes, "I explained most of the details to Sonic, knowing how much he loves to hear me talk about the inventions in great detail." Tails snickered to himself and continued, "So, I'll give you the abridged version. I modified my shoes to have similar technological capabilities to that of Shadow's. I'm already able to keep up with Sonic with my regular speed, most of the time. So I started to think that if I modified my shoes with similar aspects to Shadow's, that I might be able to match their running speeds. I tinkered with them a little bit more to my specific styles and speeds to give them even better performance. Of course, these are just the prototypes; I plan to continue working on the final result later today."

"Wow, that really incredible Tails! What brought you to do something like that though? Like you said, you're able to keep up in speed with the two hedgehogs most of the time just how you run now. So what made you think to want to surpass their speeds?" The teenage rabbit asked in curiosity.

They were both walking near the house and looking out at the runway, leading out to the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Tails took a moment to think before responding to her question, "Well, I don't know.. well I do, but well..." Tails took a deep breath to stop stumbling on his words and exhaled calmly. "I think it's because of Sonic. Well, not just Sonic, but maybe Shadow too, who knows? It's just that.. well Sonic and Shadow have always done such amazing things to help protect this planet. They've always made sure they could do whatever they can in order to stop the forces of evil whenever possible. That's why I want to do more to be sure that I can be at my best if those forces ever show up again. Not just Dr. Eggman either, since he's not the only evil we've faced in the past. I just want to be there too, if things ever get out of hand and they might need a hand. Although I sort of doubt it.. Shadow's far more powerful than I'll ever be and Sonic's always succeeding in keeping evil at bay. I figure it's always best to be prepared though, especially when it comes to protecting everyone on the planet, not to mention your loved ones."

Tails looked back at Cream, to be met with a bright, cheerful smile. Cream put her arm on Tails' shoulder, keeping her eyes on the ocean, "T-tails.. you've been there with Sonic for almost as long as he's been fighting Dr. Eggman. From some of the stories you've told me, I've gathered that if you weren't there with him, that he'd have a lot more troubles in dealing with him than he used to. Where do you think he'd be without your knowledge of mechanics and technical prowess? You've also told me that you've even confronted Dr. Robotnik on a few different occasions when Amy was cornered by him one time. You've also told me how you faced him again when you thought he finally got rid of Sonic for good. Whether you believe it or not, I think you're already on par with the two of them already. What you don't have in power or athleticism you make up in intelligence. You're careful, level-headed, and strategic when trying to think of ways in confronting the enemy. You provide different devices that you created yourself when the situation calls for it. You've done a lot for everyone and you're willing to do even more to make sure everyone's safe. With all we've been through, you still manage to be one of the n-nicest and most generous person I know." Cream turned her head slightly to get a glance at Tails. She turned her head fully, noticing he was facing away from her. "Tails?" Cream questioned a little concerned.

Tails was facing away from Cream with his muzzle glowing as bright as the red chaos emerald. He wasn't used to such high praise from anyone before, he felt quite honored to be thought of so highly by her. _By her? Why her specifically?_ Tails shook off the thought, knowing he was keeping her waiting with his sudden analyzation of the situation, "I-I really appreciate that Cream, that's really.. sweet of you." Tails turned to face her and smiled, most of his blush fading.

Cream smiled, happy that she was able to cheer up her two tailed friend and turned around with him, facing his workshop. "Should we go in with Sonic now? He's been in there for quite a while by himself."

"Oh yeah, I uh.. forgot about him." Tails chuckled lightly at his own forgetfulness and rubbed his head. "Yeah it's probably a good id-"

"Tails.." Sonic spoke and jumped from his house and landed in front of Tails and Cream, "Is there something going on that I should know about?"

"W-what do you mean?" Tails asked, noticing his stern voice as well as his serious gaze upon him. He was starting to feel a little uncomfortable at this sudden change of emotion from his brother.

"I need to know now, Tails. I need to know what happened in town today." Sonic spoke once again firmly. He stepped closer to Tails, standing face to face with him with no falter to his gaze.

"S-Sonic?" Cream hesitantly asked, now feeling as nervous as Tails was. Tails stepped back a little, feeling quite intimidated from his brother's frightening demeanor.

"_W-what's going on? Why is Sonic so serious all of a sudden. I've never seen him this serious before; not since usually entering his Super Form to face a powerful foe anyway.._" Tails thought, taking another step or two back with Cream still arm in arm. It hit him then, he wasn't just facing him seriously.. he was facing him like he could be some sort of threat. Tails shivered at the possibility that Sonic would ever think of him like that. Cream felt his arm shaking and reached for his hand to try and keep him calm. This was Sonic after all, despite his actions he'd never do anything to put them in harm's way.

"Tails!" Sonic shouted impatiently, continuing to step closer as Tails tried to step back to keep space between them. Tails' fear was starting to overwhelm him a bit and he was beginning to feel a little panicked. Tails fright-filled expression was the last thing he saw before he saw Tails scoop up Cream in his arm and flee at high speeds. Sonic immediately regretted his choice of actions as that expression of fear and desperation on Tails' features was stuck in his head. He began running after his scared, two-tailed brother at maximum speed in an attempt to catch up and explain himself.

"Tails! Tails wait!"

**...What? It's only been three years, calm down. **

**I plan to write more now, mainly this story. I can't say I'll get to every story like last time, so for now I'm going to focus on this one. I have some ideas and motivation, mainly that I want to really complete this story. Should be around 25 chapters, more or less. That means at this rate I should be done with it in 69 more years. Woo! I'll be faster with updates, or at least try to be. I want to at least finish this thing while keeping my life in tact, so I'll try to be faster than the estimated decades. **

**Please point out any 'Sonic' related errors: names, settings, etc. That'd be super. =3 **

**Enjoy the chapter if anyone even remembers the least subtle writing of the first chapter. **


	3. Enemy Prower

**Chapter III: Enemy Prower**

_I.. really don't know what to make of this.._ Cream's thoughts were racing as she was being carried at high speeds in the arms of a frightened Tails. She could feel heat creeping up her cheeks, upon realizing she was in the arms of her best friend. She wanted more than anything to do what she could in order to try and comfort him, despite her own uneasiness toward the situation. She too was a little shaken up at Sonic's sudden mood swing: from completely relaxed to stressed out in mere minutes. She couldn't believe that Sonic would yell at him without any explanation or reason that she could think of. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, feel a tinge of anger ignite inside her at the blue hedgehog. She decided to push that feeling down, knowing that more anger would only make the situation worse.

Despite the tension of the situation, she couldn't help but feel a little joyous as well. She loved the feeling of the breeze against her fur and the mach speeds Tails was running at. It felt being on some sort of roller coaster from Twinkle Park, just much faster and softer. That feeling of excitement didn't last too long; too many questions were racing inside her head. _Why was Sonic so determined to know what Tails was doing today? What made him lose his temper so fast? Sonic's always so calm and carefree, it takes a lot for Sonic to 'lose his cool' like that._ _The only time I've ever seen him so serious is when he's facing Dr. Eggman or some other.._ _wait, that can't be right. Sonic seeing Tails as some sort of threat?_ That small presence of anger she felt before sparked once more as she thought about it. _He did mention something that happened in Station Square._ _Could Sonic really have accused Tails of anything bad happening in Station Square?_ Cream looked up to face the Yellow Fox and into his sky blue eyes. She could see the fear and sadness evident from the earlier interrogation of his surrogate brother. Despite the hurt, she could also see the warmth and kindness that always seemed to be there clear as day to her. _Someone with eyes so gentle could never do anything harmful on a level like Dr. Eggman._

Tails really wanted to get away from the Mystic Ruins, fearing he'd be further interrogated by a hostile blue hedgehog. He couldn't believe that whom he's come to think of as his big brother was now starting to talk to him like he was some kind of criminal. Tails was not only perplexed, but stunned and hurt from the sudden turn in emotion from one of his closest friends. With as hurt as he was, it also really made him think about what made him act so strange. _What was he doing during the small amount of time I was spending with Cream?_ He could recall the questions he was being asked relate to something that happened in Station Square. _He must of been watching the news on the television or listening to the local news station on the radio._ He was furthermore confused. _If there really was a situation in Station Square, why would Sonic think that I had any part in it?_ _It doesn't make any sense.._

"Oh my, it seems the fox boy has become a renegade, hm?" A figure gracefully glided down and landing in front of the cave entrance of the cliff. Tails was immediately cut from his thoughts and quickly stopped before running into the figure.

"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Tails inquired, surprised at her unprecedented visit. As soon as he asked, Sonic appeared right behind him and Cream, nearly running into the two as he was on his tip toes, flailing his arms about.

Sonic sighed. _Wow, his shoes almost makes him as fast as me now.. that's my buddy for you. Always going above and beyond with his inventions.._ Sonic felt even more guilty now with how he acted with Tails. He wasn't used to such a longevity of peace, the lack of villain-thwarting must of been getting to him. Oh, the irony.

Rouge put an arm on her hip and looked into the eyes of the young fox, young in her eyes anyway. She knew she was right to come here, something didn't feel right when talk was going around G.U.N. " Word at my headquarters is: there were talks of a teenage yellow fox causing disruptions in Station Square. All of a sudden, he vanished with what looked like a red type of jewel in his possession.. that doesn't sound like the fox boy I know."

"T-that can't be true!" Cream jumped out of Tails arms and looked face to face with the albino bat. "Tails would never do anything like that.." It suddenly began to dawn on both Cream and Tails. At nearly the exact moment, the both of them turned their heads toward the blue hedgehog behind them. Now it all made sense as to why Sonic was acting so strangely.

"That's what I was.. um, trying to ask about before." Sonic said, scratching his ear nervously, "I may of gotten a little carried away though. I didn't mean to, it's just.. it was surprising seeing that on the news and I started to panic in your house and then I just wanted to know the truth.. I didn't mean to scare you or make you think that I was hunting you down or anything, Tails."

Tails felt a little more hurt that Sonic could ever jump to that conclusion about him. He also had to keep in mind that this also involved a.._ two-tailed yellow fox?_ Now he was even more at a loss of thought. There really was a crime involving someone that looked exactly like him? How could that even be possible? He'd never met anyone with similar unique traits such as his two namesakes; not to mention another fox in general let alone the same fur color and traits as him. This was not only perplexing, but a little intriguing as well.

"That's what I came to talk to you about." Rouge stated to the bewildered fox, as the three turned back to face her again. "G.U.N. was planning to send out some of their agents to capture and interrogate you before anymore damage could be done." Tails froze with his eyes agape at the thought of him being pursued by that organization. He wouldn't stand a chance against them. She folded her arms and a playful smile formed on the bat's features, adding in a wink as she continued, "Of course, I managed to convince them to not to do anything drastic, like the last time they tried this with Sonic and the mistaken identity." A relieving sigh escaped the fox's mouth, with Sonic standing behind him with an appreciative grin on his face to Rouge. Cream felt herself calming down now after hearing this bit of good news.

"I really appreciate the trouble you went through to do that, thank you." Tails said sincerely, but couldn't help but ask, feeling hesitant in asking, "Um.. but why would you help me?" Rouge walked over to the curious fox and gently placed a hand under his chin and smiled.

"What kind of agent would I be if I let a cutie like you be taken away by them?" She winked and placed a soft peck on the fox's nose and ran off towards the rocky wall she'd previously staged her entrance from. "I told Knuckles I would be returning after running an errand or two.. hopefully he's not too worried about little ol' me. Until next time.." She flew back up the wall and disappeared from their sights. Tails looked out with a blank stare and reddened face at the unexpected display of affection from her. Despite being grateful for her helping out Tails, Cream couldn't help but experience this strange feeling growing inside her, as she found herself with her hands on her hips and glaring up to where the female bat vanished.

Tails eventually broke out of his blank state and faced Sonic once more, cautiously staring at his surrogate big brother, "You.. don't believe I did anything, do you Sonic?" Tails looked over him carefully as he saw him sigh and look Tails in the eyes.

"Of course I don't. I know you aren't capable of causing anyone harm. I just overreacted and panicked before, jumping to a conclusion that couldn't possibly be true. Although.. I was worried that maybe you could of been being controlled or.. well, who knows? I'm sorry, buddy." Sonic explained, guilt clearly displayed in his light green pupils as he once again resorted to scratch near his ear nervously. Tails knew that he was being sincere and honest and gave him a smile, holding out his fist. Sonic grinned, making a fist and bumped Tails' fist. Cream's eyes lit up at the sight, happy they were on speaking terms again.

"Hmph, some secret agent. You couldn't even figure out that you were being followed all the way out here." The cloaked figure spoke to the now tied up and gagged Rouge. "Although I must thank you, for leading the way for me. I couldn't of found young Miles without you." Rouge was struggling on the ground, trying to free herself from these bindings. The hooded figure turned away from the helpless bat to overlook the large open area of the Mystic Ruins, There he stood, above the cliff that Rouge had just previously tried to exit from. Down below, the cloaked figure could see three other creatures, chatting amongst each other. He smirked, catching the sight of a certain yellow fox with them. His two own yellow tails waving up and down simultaneously in anticipation. "It's been awhile, Miles. I thought we'd never meet again, but here you are; waiting for me to fulfil your true fate. First, let me see how fast your group's reflexes are." The cloaked figure held out his right arm toward the group, revealing a red chaos emerald in hand. 

~~~

"Let's head back to the workshop. I was hoping to maybe find out more about this mysterious fox in Station Square." Tails said with Cream nodding in agreement, both turning around to head back. Sonic was about to follow, but something in the sky caught his attention. A strange dark light was hurdling directly at them! Sonic reacted without thinking, grabbing both Tails' and Cream's arms and sped out of the targeted area. Unbeknownst to them, as soon as this strange beam of light struck the ground, a small explosion of energy was triggered; sending the three of them toppled over to the ground from the shockwave. Sonic quickly jumped up looking over at the direction from where the light was released, with both Tails and Cream catching their breathes from the sudden force.

"W-where did that c-come from?" Cream asked, trembling in fear. Tails too was shaking a little in freight, slowly getting up and helping her to her feet. Sonic was still scanning the area around the cliff, until finally spotting a cloaked figure up above the cliff. Sonic readied himself for another possible strike, keeping his eyes sternly on the figure above.

"It's him!" Sonic declared, pointing to the figure above, "It's the Tails imposter!" Tails quickly jerked his head upwards, looking upwards to the cloaked figure. His eyes grew wider in shock as he noticed the two yellow and white-tipped tails, waving back and forth behind him.

"T-two tails.. just.. just like mine." Tails whispered in astonishment, now even more frightened than before. There really was someone that was exactly like him.. he couldn't believe it. _Where did he come from? Who is he? Does he know who I am? Why did he come here?_ More and more questions kept popping up in his mind, still unable to believe what he was seeing.

A menacing grin crossed the cloaked figure's face, "I can see the fear and skepticism in your eyes. I'm offended that you don't remember me, Miles."

"He.. knows your name?" Cream asked in concern, still staring at the figure above. She didn't like the feeling she was getting from him. She could tell just by looking at him that he wasn't someone to be taken lightly.. somewhat similar to Shadow's presence when she first encountered him. This was a little different still, knowing now that Shadow was a good person inside. This person though.. didn't seem to share that quality. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was just this strange negativity surrounding him. She felt herself shaking more, feeling a little overwhelmed by his presence.

Tails seemed to take notice of this, and rested his hand on her shoulder and spoke softly, "It's okay Cream.. we can take him if he tries anything. He's just like all the others we've faced." She started to calm down a little, thanks to the comfort of Tails. She still couldn't help but have a bad feeling about this cloaked fox.

"How touching, but enough stalling. I've come to make your realize your fate and nothing will get in the way of that." The cloaked fox jumped off the cliff, his twin-tails spinning in an identical fashion to Tails' infamous flying method. Flames began shooting out from the bottom of his shoes, rapidly propelling himself towards the group. Sonic quickly jumped in front of his friends, "You two stay back, I can take him on, no problem." Sonic ran up and jumped out at the oncoming fox, readying his attack before the fox could reach the other two. The cloaked fox smiled and before Sonic could compress himself into a ball, he suddenly found his legs being forced together. His legs appeared to be clamped together with what appeared to be a long, mechanical rope-like device. Unable to break free, Sonic flew by the cloaked fox and landing both feet on the ground, now just trying to keep his balance to stand up. "Let's see how far you get without the ability to move." Just as he spoke, an electrical current shot through the hedgehog's body.

"Ahh!" Sonic yelped as he was forced down to the ground, falling hard on his stomach in pain from being shocked.

The cloaked fox towered over him with a menacing grin and spoke, "As I said before, nothing will get in my way, Sonic the Hedgehog. Each time you make any sort of movement to attack, get up, or even struggle free will result in a few.. shocking unpleasantries. Consider yourself lucky you're not my initial target." He began slowly walking over toward the teenage fox, seeing the entire sight in disbelief. He shook his head and immediately stepped in front of Cream.

"He's after me, get out of here Cream." Tails said, clenching his fists with his stare of disbelief growing into a look of anger and determination.

"No! I'm not going to leave you alone with him!" Cream exclaimed on the spot, wrapping her arms around him and showing no intention of budging. As Tails was about to retaliate, he noticed the cloaked fox holding up the red chaos emerald.

"You heard him, you foolish rabbit girl. Begone." The chaos emerald began to radiate in a strange, darker red illumination. "Chaos.. Burst." The same light as before shot out from the dimly gleaming chaos emerald and struck the ground in front of them. Another explosion of energy erupted from the ground, hurling the two backwards a small distance away.

Tails! Cream!" Sonic gasped seeing the explosion, trying to get free from his oppression just to be shocked once more. He really hated the fact that he had to stay put and watch this demon toy around with his friends, not knowing what he's up to or how far he'll go. Tails' fur was a little messy and a little dirty from the explosion, but besides that he felt perfectly fine. He looked over to her friend not to far from him and noticed she wasn't moving. His thoughts began to run astray, thinking if she was really hurt or.. worse. He quickly calmed himself down to think logically; he was in front of her during the little explosion and he was just fine, so he quickly concluded that she was just unconscious. Of course, that didn't stop him from worrying and getting up to go aid her. As soon as he tried to push himself up, he was slammed hard, back into the ground by the cloaked fox; now on top of him with his legs on his arms so he couldn't move them. He tried to squirm and struggle free from the cloaked fox's grasp, but could not budge.

The menacing grin was still present as he looked down to the scared, teenage fox under him and spoke, "All I simply want is but one thing from you, Miles." Tails hesitantly faced the half hidden face of the attacker, not able to make out any part of his head above his muzzle. He couldn't even look him in the eyes and he felt very intimidated by him. "All I want is for us to be a family once again, is that so difficult to request?"

His eyes widened once more in trembling confusion, "F-fa.. family?"

A small frown could be seen on the hooded fox, as he held out the chaos emerald once again; his hand above the emerald with the sharp bottom gleaming in the sunlight. He lifted it over his head, looking down at him and explaining further, "Of course.. my little brother. Let me renew our bond of brotherly love by introducing you to your true destiny. Join me Miles, in the realm of darkness where you belong." He threw down his arm and thrusts the bottom of the chaos emerald in the center of Tails' forehead, just below the three bangs sticking out from his fur. He yelled in agony as a dark light illuminated upon penetration, glowing brighter with the emerald shrouded in a reddish electricity.

"Tails, no!" Sonic yelled, his eyes as big as plates at what he was seeing. He was trying harder than ever to break free from this strange, confining device. Ignoring the increasing shock passing through his body, he didn't want to give up. He couldn't give up now, he needed to break free and save him before it was too late. _I can't lose you, you're my best friend.. my buddy.. my little brother.. _Eventually, the pain of the continuous shock overwhelmed him as he slowly began slipping into unconsciousness, but not before calling out his name once more in a whisper.

"T-Tails.."

**Yay, new chapter. Chapter IV is almost done too, so there you go. I am working on this again. XD This is basically the chapter that the plot starts to come in, for the most part. Next chapter will conclude this one, and will mainly focus on Tails' and Cream's relationship. **

**I think I am going to be redoing the first chapter too, I just think it'd be for the best. The first chapter basically determines if you're going to keep the reader or not. I feel that these new ones are definitely an improvement, of course, it could be all in my head; just run with it though. =3 **


	4. Curse

**I still fail in the goal of owning Sonic, thus it remains in the hands of the creator and the team.**

**Chapter IV: Curse**

The three heroes: Tails, Cream and Sonic all lay unconscious after the invasion of an unexpected cloaked fox. He stood over Tails and smirked, finished with whatever torture he'd just put him through. He looked around at the others and sighed, "How pathetic.. these are the heroes of the planet, yet they were taken down so easily just by the element of surprise." He shook his head in disgust, with an interesting thought in mind. He walked over to the rabbit lying mere feet away from his proclaimed little brother and leaned down to face her with a look of uncertainty. _I noticed Miles' willingness to shield this girl from me as well as her determination to stay close to him during our encounter. Maybe things would progress faster if I were to take this girl captive.. _He seemed to be seriously contemplating this until a reckless pink hedgehog seemingly out of no where appeared, ready to strike down the dark figure near her best friend.

"You leave her alone you creep!" Amy yelled with her hammer aimed squarely at the cloaked fox. Unfortunately, this ruined her own element of surprise and he quickly jumped up over the rabbit and away from his attacker. As followed, a certain red echidna jumped up from behind Amy and over the unconscious rabbit to throw a powerful punch at the foe. The cloaked fox caught onto this second attempt at an ambush and swiftly turned to his side to evade the oncoming punch and caught onto his arm in mid-punch and kicked him away onto the ground a small distance away.

"Nice try, Knuckles the Echidna. I must say, you two put up a much better attempt at striking at me than these pathetic excuses for heroes over there." He gloated. Unbeknownst to him, a third assailant was rapidly descending the skies just above the unsuspecting fox. With his guard up and his senses at the maximum, he leered back just as the third assailant struck the earth with incredible velocity. The cloaked fox was swept away from the impact, unable to completely avoid the attack and tumbled backwards a little bit before catching himself on his hands and knees. He stood back facing down at the ground, his hood being knocked off and his head now fully exposed.

"Humph! that's what you get for the way you've treated this lovely young lady." Rouge said with a smug face and her arms folded.

Knuckles was back on his feet, ready once again to take on this mysterious foe, until a few strange features caught his eye, as he noticed that he looked suspiciously like Tails. Not only with the two large yellow and white tipped tails behind him, but also with three larger yellow bangs of fur sticking out of the of his forehead; unlike Tails' bangs, his seemed to just hang down limply on his forehead. Above his bangs, small tidbits of fur stuck out wildly on top of his head, similar with the fur branching out from the sides of his muzzle, but sharper and a little longer than Tails'. _What's with this guy.. where did he come from? _ Suddenly he froze in his stance, as a pair of keen, blood red eyes flashed as the unhooded fox rose his head to face the three newcomers.

A hint of laughter crackled from his voice and he looked out to the three of them, his eyes filled with utter hatred and a little bit of amusement from their previous efforts to strike. "Impressive, you managed to catch me off guard for a brief moment there. Looks like I'll have to pay you back in full." Amy felt her arms shaken, clutching tightly to her hammer for comfort. She could see the hatred and malicious intent in his piercing red pupils. She couldn't believe he was able to take out her three friends so easily. She needed to be on her best guard and be prepared to fight.. even if she didn't feel all that ready all of a sudden. What chance would they have if Sonic and the others were so easily taken out? She gasped, as she saw the demon revealed in his hand: a Chaos Emerald. He held the emerald out to the three and quickly casting a glance towards the unconscious fox. "Actually, I think I will leave that duty to my little brother that you all know too well.. for now I will take my leave. Consider yourselves lucky.. for now." After a few mutters, there was a bright flash and suddenly he was gone. Amy felt a little more at ease now, as the other two were stood there in annoyance at his sudden leave. 

Amy ran over to Sonic, worry clearly on her features and kneeling next to her love. She tried to lightly shake him awake, "Ah!" she yelped, suddenly feeling a small shock and instantly letting him go. She finally noticed the strange device wrapped around his legs, a few bits of electricity dancing around the device and dying down. The blue hedgehog's eyes shot open at the tiny shock, laying on his stomach with his breathing feeling a little more rapid than usual.

"Tails? Tails are you all right?" Sonic questioned as he was blinking faster, his vision feeling a little blurry. He remembered to keep still to not feel anymore shocks from this strange device that demon attached to his legs.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled, sitting down on the side in his sights with grave concern on her features.

"Ames! When did you get here?" Sonic exclaimed, feeling a little more relieved. Out in the distance he noticed a few other visitors as well, his vision beginning to clear up. "Knuckles! ..Rouge?"

"I was coming to see you just now.. then Knuckles was coming to check on Rouge.. then we found her tied up above the cliff over there and noticed a strange light shining from here." The pink hedgehog explained, "We managed to chase off that creep that was.. Cream!" She was so concerned about Sonic she forget all about checking her and Tails.

"She's fine, just out cold at the moment." Rouge stated bluntly, she walked over next to Knuckles to see the fox boy, but noticed Knuckles was quite focused on him. Rouge looked down and noticed the fox boy was clutching his forehead with both hands. His fur seemed a bit dampened in different areas, most likely from sweat.

"Tails, you all right?" Knuckles asked, a little worried for the little guy who looked to be in pain. He kneeled down near the fox, about to shake him a little-

"G-get away from me!" Tails yelled. He was still shaking in pain and clutching his forehead. He had no idea what was going on or where he even was; his eyes being closed the entire time along with not hearing too well through the pain. He assumed his attacker was still going about with his torture, as the pain in his head wouldn't go away. Knuckles was feeling a little aggravated at his sudden burst and shook him a little roughly, trying to get him to open his eyes once again.

"Tails! It's us-"

"I said.. GO AWAY!" He shouted in blind rage, his arms swinging at each of his sides as he sat up. A powerful, mysterious force pushed the two of them back a little, each trying to keep his and her balance. His eyes were finally open, his pupils were a little dilated for the brief moment they were open. He immediately sealed his eyes shut again, resting one hand back on his forehead as he still felt lingering pain. He slowly and carefully reopened his eyes, and looked out as he saw a few surprised faces looking back at him. He stared at them with a blank expression on his face, clueless as to why he was being watching. "Wha.. what's going on?" The fox asked, a small blush creeping up on his face at the sudden attention.

Sonic was the first to speak up, more relieved than surprised at these turn of events, "Whew.. buddy you're okay. You scared us for a moment there.." He was referring more to his pain, rather than the sudden, uneasy outburst.

Knuckles had to ask though, still feeling a little irritable, "What was THAT about?"

The teenage fox shifted his blank stare at Knuckles, "What.. was what?"

The echidna rose his brow in confusion and shook his head, shaking it off as if it never happened. "Nothing.. good to see you're all right." Knuckles patted the clueless fox's head and turned away facing Rouge, "Now that things are settled here, let's get back to the island." She nodded in agreement, walking alongside the echidna as they made their exit. Just as they were walking past Sonic, he stopped for a brief moment and spoke, "Fill me in later, I have to get back to the Master Emerald." Sonic gave a thumbs up and they continued off.

"Wow, you guys were really able to scare him off huh? Good job." Sonic said, facing the female hedgehog with his trademark smile.

Amy blushed a little and lied, "Y-yeah, he wasn't so tough.." She pushed her earlier nervousness from seeing the mysterious fox aside, trying to impress her love.

In this time, Tails was able to recollect his thoughts. He recalled being attacked by that villainous fox, first going after Sonic and then making his way for him and.. _Cream!_ He instantly whirled his head back and forth around the area, until finally resting his eyes on the unconscious rabbit. He quickly jumped up, ignoring the pain still residing in his head and went over to check on his friend. He kneeled down with his hands on the ground, looking over the unconscious rabbit with concern. Her thin fur wasn't as messy or dirty as his turned out from the explosion and there seemed to be no injuries or even minor blemishes. He noticed a little bit of dirt and a small rip on the stomach of her scarlet, now wrinkled blouse, with only a small mark or two of dirt on her now wrinkled shorts of the same color. He looked over her frame head to toe once more to make sure there really was no significant injuries. He smiled, now positive she was perfectly fine, continuing to gaze over her form in what seemed like nothing but peaceful slumber. Despite being knocked out by an attack, she looked as if she'd just fallen asleep, as if she was laying on the ground and watching the clouds pass by as they've done together in the past.

He really wanted to wake up his sleeping friend, but didn't want to disturb the flow of tranquillity surrounding her. _She looks so at peace right now.. after all the scares she's had today, she deserves to rest for a little bit.. _Tails felt his smile grow a little, just happy that she was safe. Not fully understanding his actions, he nervously brought down one of his hands and slowly slipped it under her's. He sat down next to her and cupped her hand with both of his. A light blush growing on his muzzle, as well as an unusual warmth growing inside him. He never really understood why he felt like this whenever he found himself in Cream's touch, but it never fails to provide him with some sort of comfort and with something he couldn't quite put his finger on.. like he wanted something.. more. More of what exactly that was, he wasn't exactly sure of, to be honest. _More of.. Cream maybe? _For reasons unknown, he felt his muzzle flare at the thought. _I.. want to be with Cream more? We visit each other everyday though.. we talk and have fun spending time together.. what more could there be..? _

His gaze turned back to Cream, still trying to make sense of these stray thoughts. He looked into the face of his sleeping friend, thinking of all time they've spent together up to now. Their time together has grown significantly from when they first met. In those times of adventure and fighting to protect the world, it felt like they would only meet together whenever they were summoned by Sonic for assistance. Back then, he only felt that he could really talk to Sonic as well as to a certain extent, Knuckles and Amy. He remembers not being all that open to her when they first met, after her mother was rescued from Dr. Eggman after being kidnapped quite awhile ago. He knew at first sights that she was a sweet, innocent, and polite to him and all of his friends, but they never really communicated on a personal level.. not at least, until awhile later.

"It's sure has been nice and quiet as of recent.. I wonder if Eggman has finally given up his conquest of domination?" The ten-year-old fox asked himself. As expected, he was working within the confines of his workshop, tinkering with the Tornado to keep it in tip top condition, ready to take on anything. He wheeled out from under the machine and sat up against it, beginning to feel a little exhausted. This is been his sanctum, his workshop of building and inventing.. one of them anyway, but one of his favorite locations. He loved working in the quiet and peaceful nature of the Mystic Ruins, working the majority of the time in solitude, minus a few visitors to explore the caves or visiting the chao gardens near the waterfall. Sometimes he'd be so into what he would work on, he'd work late into the night or even into the early mornings. Sometimes he'd have to fly into town to get something to eat, completely forgetting about his nutritional needs.

His friends were quite used to not seeing him for long periods of time, always guessing he's working on some new invention or trying to modify older ones to make them even better. Sometimes he'd feel lonely, especially working into the late nights, but sometimes he wasn't always able to get in contact with the others. There have been moments though, where they'd come out of the blue and would ask if he could help them with building or fixing something. Knuckles once asked if he could build him a type of security system for the Master Emerald, so he'd be able to step off of the island every once in awhile for his own reasons. Sonic came by a few times to see if he he'd be able to make some kind of 'cloaking device' so if Amy was anywhere near, he'd be able to make his escape without her knowing about it. He's also asked to use the training room he had in another workshop in Emerald City, so he gave Sonic one of his spare keys to access it anytime.

Tails looked down at his watch, it was only about 4:30pm, still an early evening. He felt a strong growl from the pit of his stomach, begging for the nourishment it required. "Now's probably a good time to eat, as opposed to waiting until the next time the idea comes up, hours from now I'm sure." Tails decided, getting up and walking away from the Tornado. He began ascending his stairs from the extraordinarily spacious lab that far exceeded the perimeter of his workshop above. This was just one of his many projects he accomplished that he would work on for days straight, over the period of a few months with a little help from some of his friends too. This allowed him to place some furniture in the living room area above, which doubled as his room since he was the only resident. He also had a decent size kitchen in the next room, and a bathroom in a smaller room next to the basement door. Walking into the kitchen, he opened up his fridge to see what today's selections were.. only to discover there wasn't much of a variety. All he saw was baking soda, a juice container with less than a cup's worth of contents inside, an empty container of milk, a grape vine in a clear bag with two or three measly grapes, two sticks of butter, and a few selections of various bottled condiments. Tails frowned, his ears drooping a little, "Oh.. yeah.. I was supposed to go shopping today." His stomach growled louder in response to his sudden dilemma, frowning a bit more in response. "Well.. I could probably go shopping right now, but then it'll be awhile before getting back.. and I'm really close in completing my work on the Tornado. I don't want to have to wait until tomorrow or late tonight to finish it, I'm pretty-" Tails let out a mighty yawn that pretty much summed up his feelings, better than words.

**Diiiing dong **

Tails blinked and walked to the back of his kitchen to answer the door, _A visitor? Well this is a surprise. _He just guessed that it was potentially a tourist in curiosity or maybe one of his friend in need of some kind of obscure device, like Sonic's 'cloaking device' specifically with Amy in mind. He shook his head at the ridiculous requests in the past and walked over to the door to reveal his guest.

"Hello Mr. Tails!" The cheerful young rabbit happily chimed. Cream has been around here quite a few times in the Mystic Ruins to visit the Chao garden occasionally. Today though, she remembered Tails had spent most of his days here in the little isolated workshop, over a large cliff within walking distance atop of the ocean below. She felt a little saddened at the fact that her friend began to hide himself away so far from civilization; far enough away to need to take a train just to get here. She decided today that she would visit her twin-tailed friend and maybe catch up with him a little. Sure, they weren't as close as Sonic and him, or her mother and herself, but she always valued all of her friends' relationships. She knew how nice and polite Tails was with everyone and how much he tries to help his friends with his new inventions, and also does his best to help all of them along with her to make sure the world is clean and safe of all evils. With this in mind, she really did want to get to know the young and cheerful mechanic a little better, knowing that they could become really good friends if they got to know each other more.

"Oh.. H-hello." He said, a little taken back from the formality but responded, "Just Tails is all right, Cream. I haven't seen you for awhile, how have you been?" He felt a little smile forming on his muzzle, knowing one of his friends decided to pay him a little visit all the way out here. He always knew Cream, despite her age, was always nice and formal with everybody. He's also known of her willingness to never harm anything or anyone, unless persuaded to do so in order to protect her loved ones. Tails really had to admire the young rabbit for her devotion to her loved ones and her bravery in defending others against the evils. He felt a little heat creeping upon his white muzzle, a little confused at where this little bit of admiration for the young rabbit came from.

A blank look was evident on her face, but quickly a little smile formed and responded to her friend, "I'm okay, I wanted to visit the chao garden here, I remembered that you've been spending a lot of time here lately, and I really wanted to see how you've been doing too." She spoke sweetly and sincerely, as she looked into the eyes of her friend. She noticed Tails had little bags under his eyes. _He looks.. exhausted. Maybe I should of called ahead before- oh, right.. he doesn't have a phone. _She blinked at her thoughts, having thought of something that piqued her curiosity. _How is he able to stay in contact with everyone if he doesn't- um.. well.. that explains a lot, actually. _She inspected her friend a little closer, noticing that his fur was quite ruffled in various places, like he hasn't groomed himself in days. The three long bangs of fur that stuck out of his head looked a little drooped down more than she was normally used to seeing. She frowned a little at his appearance, looking as though he was completely exhausted. _He really does spend a lot of his time in his lab.. if not his entire time, he looks really tired.._

Tails raised his brow, the small blush still on his features, "R-really? Well.. that was nice of you." He felt a little bad, having her come all the way out here just to see him. He noticed that his fur seemed all over the place, and automatically began patting down several different patches of fur sticking out in the hopes of looking more presentable. _Well.. technically to go to the chao garden, this is just more of a side trip. Yeah, that makes sense. _

She giggled slightly at his actions and nodded at her sleepy friend. "Were you thinking that everyone forgot about you or something? You're the one that hides from us, you know." Despite her joking tone, she did feel a little worried about that evident fact in his appearance. Always hiding himself away from the rest of his friends, possibly working day and night on his contraptions.. he hasn't really visited anyone in almost a year! She's also heard from the others, he has a tendency to put those things off quite a bit. Whether it's working into the wee hours of the morning, or only eating whenever his stomach pleads for it's required nourishment. She was concerned about his increasingly strange daily habits and his lacking interests in.. well, anything else that wasn't about mechanics or constructing any sort of device he thought up. Once or twice long ago, he'd visited her in the past just to play together and despite his maturity and knowledge at such an age, he was a really fun person to play with and just to be around. They'd teach each other some of their favorite games or share some stories from fighting with or even working with Eggman over the past years; they would enjoyed and have fun in the little times they've shared together. She remembered that one time, she once taught him how to play hopscotch, showing him how to play and going first to show him how by going first. The first time he tried to play, he stumbled and fell after trying to retrieve the pebble while having to stay on one foot to try and get it. Her smile grew at the little memory they'd have shared together.. Of course, this was all before he decided to invent, build, create, modify, and tinker his little heart out on such a daily basis. This started after he'd mention something about building a lab under his workshop in the Mystic Ruins so he could house nearly all of his creations, including the infamous Tornado. Ever since, he's become more and more distant with everyone, growing apart until the point where he would lock himself away from everyone, everyday to do work on his increasingly obsessive hobbies. Cream was really beginning to miss those little times together where they could just play and have fun together outside of all the battles and fighting for this planet, sometimes get together with their other friends to have fun with them as well. She was really hoping that maybe she could talk to him a little today and maybe convince him to come out every so often to just maybe have some more get togethers again.

Tails was about to reply, but noticed that she looked a little distracted, in what appeared to be deep in thought. He felt himself smile a little more as he saw that whatever she was thinking about, made her smile grow and her eyes light up a little bit. He smiled back and scratched the back of his head, feeling a little embarrassed about what she'd just pointed out a moment ago. "Yeah.. I get a little uh, occupied in the lab." He stepped to the side a little and directed his arms towards the kitchen, giving her a warm and friendly smile. "Would you.. like to come in, Cream?"

She blinked from her thoughts in hearing the sudden question and felt her eyes widen a little. She'd never been into Tails' workshop here before and was always curious about what it looked like on the inside. On instinct, he bowed in appreciation and nodding to his friend with a smile, "I'd love to, thank you. I have never been inside of here before, and I've always wanted to see what the inside of your workshop here looked like." She slowly stepped inside, glancing around and about in the kitchen and into the next room with interest. He laughed at her sudden curiosity with his inner workshop and sat down at the table. His eyes lowered, noticing she was holding onto something in his hands, wondering what it could possibly be..

"Hey Cream, what's in the basket?" He asked curiously. She forgot all about it and placed it on the table, sitting on the opposite side of the table to him and a smile growing across her features.

She blinked, completely forgetting about the item she'd been holding onto this entire time. A tinge or red appeared across her face, smiling at her twin-tailed friend and answered, "Well.. I've heard that when you work hard on something, you have a tendency to forget a few certain.. daily necessities, and thought I should bring you a little gift." She lifted the delicate cloth that covering the contents within, to reveal what was under the fabric. "I hope you like them.. they're chocolate chip, mint flavored cookies. I've heard from Sonic that you're quite fond of mint.. and I wanted to do my best to try and make them for you.. I never made cookies from scratch before, so I.. I hope you like them." This was her first time in trying to make any sort of baked goods or sweets, really. Thanks to the help of her mother and a recipe she'd have for chocolate chip cookies in a book about desserts. She went to begin on her little endeavor right away, but suddenly had the thought of wanting to add something.. something different to make them a little more.. special. She was making them for someone she hadn't seen in a long time and for such a nice friend.. he deserved a little more to his treat. She knew he would be happy with just having them as they were, but still wanted to try and add a little something different. That's where the idea of asking Sonic for any ideas came up, luckily being able to call him on a cell phone that Amy had purchased for him recently at the time. It was then she was given the idea to add his favorite flavor of candy to the ingredients, hoping she'd be able to get them to turn out all right.

Tails' eyes widened a little and looked into the chocolate eyes of his rabbit friend, really surprised that not only she'd gone to the trouble of getting him any kind of gift, but had actually made them herself, from scratch! His muzzle was getting more and more red by each second, not believing someone would go to the trouble of doing something so.. so sweet, and for him nonetheless. "You.. made me cookies? F-from scratch?" Tails finally asked, a little nervously, shifting his gaze down to the table and added, "Wow.. t-that's really.. sweet of you, Cream.. thank you." His stomach rejoiced with yet again a loud grumble, but in utter delight and joy of the presence of something edible in sight. His blush darkened, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, "G-good timing really, I was feeling pretty hungry right now, heh.. heh.."

Cream suppressed the urge of a frown really wanting to form. She managed to let out a weak giggle and retrieved for him two of the cookies on a napkin from the basket. "..I had a little bit of help from mother, but I put together most of the ingredients and baked them. She helped me with the measurements and made sure I did everything correctly and safely." She explained. She felt a little worried now over quite the loud grumble from his stomach, like he hadn't eaten today or anything.. She could feel her concern for him growing a little more now, worrying that there might be more to him not eating than he might be letting on. She had to ask him, "..D-did you eat anything today, Tails?"

Tails blinked a little at the sudden question, feeling a little uncomfortable as he assumed she was probably staring directly at him, waiting for his answer. He slowly looked up to look her in the eyes.. only to notice her eyes were filled with worry and a little.. sadness? He gulped a little and eventually answered, "Uh.. well, I planned to eat just a.. a few minutes ago.. but um.." His hunger was starting to get to him due to the intoxicating aroma of the two cookies placed before him. He quickly picked up one of the delectable smelling little morsels and took a rather large bite on contact, completely taking in the flavor of the soft and chocolaty goodness with a hint of mint that lingered with it. He had to interrupt his current explanation to compliment his rabbit friend's little gift to him with a bright smile, now facing her completely. "Mmm.. these are.. really good, Cream. T-thank you again for making them and bringing them all the way out here. I think I can safely say.. that this is the best cookies I've ever tasted." 

A blush spread across Cream's face at his sudden compliment of her cookies and looked to the side shyly, a small smile appearing on her face and suddenly finding the table top of interest. She spoke softly, "Y-you're very w-welcome Mist.. T-Tails." She was quite flattered that he was enjoying the cookies.. but still couldn't help but feel a little worried at the little conflict at hand. She looked back at the joyous fox in fully consuming his first cookie and cleared her throat, "Um.. y-you were saying before of um.. finding something to eat..?"

Tails looked back at the worried rabbit, holding up the second cookie up to his mouth in an attempt to consume it in it's entirety in a single bite. He blinked and a small chuckle escaped him at his over eagerness and nodded. "Right, right, sorry Cream, like I was saying before.. I was looking for something to eat just a few minutes before you came by actually.. but um, I sort of forgot that I didn't have anything here to eat right now, heh heh.." He rubbed his head in the embarrassment of his forgetfulness of planning to going shopping today, only losing track to work more on the Tornado in the hopes of finishing it by tonight. This didn't really help in comforting her worries.. beginning to think that there might be another reason that he didn't have food. What if he couldn't get food? What if he spent whatever earnings he had on different mechanical parts or tools or various lab equipment? She looked down at the table, fiddling with her fingers a little bit not wanting to believe he'd be that reckless with his projects.. but the thought kept coming back after trying to forget it. Eventually she was able to find her voice, trembling a little bit in what she wanted to ask.

"You're.. you're not in any sort of.. m-money troubles are you, T-Tails?"

Tails blinked once again by the second question relating to his eating habits. He slowly processed the question and a small frown appearing on his muzzle. _Is she.. really worried about me and my eating habits? They.. they're not THAT bad.. they're just.. irregular. I remember to eat everyone once in a whi.. well, once a day anyway.. I-It's enough though. _Tails recalled the previous day though, eating basically whatever he could come across in great haste to satisfy his stomach and be able to get back to the Tornado in a matter of minutes. He shook his head from his thoughts, turning back to Cream and rubbing the back of his head, "No-no, of course not." A weak chuckle escaped him, holding about half of the remains of his second cookie in hand and went on, "I've just been working on the Tornado most of the day today. I decided yesterday eating the last remains of my food that I would go and get that done today.. but the idea must of slipped when I went right to the basement after waking up today." He explained, turning his head to the side a little, starting to feel a little uneasy for reasons beyond himself, "I was.. thinking on going maybe later t-today, or p-possibly waiting until tomorrow, to go at a better time. I'm almost wrapped up the new modifications and repairs on the Tornado, and I was hoping that I could finish that up by tonight." He was hoping that this would put her at ease.. hoping she'd return to her cheerful and optimistic self as she usually was. What should of been a relieving smile and look of understanding, turned into a look of displeasure and a frown from his rabbit friend. His brow rose slightly, not understanding what had caused her to look so distraught with him. _Did I.. say something wrong? _

She couldn't take this.. the way her friend was overworking himself with all of his time in his lab and how much he worked on his projects. He looked as though he's only been sleeping a few hours a day instead of a good number of them consistently. His fur and bangs were ungroomed and looked shaggy and a little dirty. On top of all of that, he was practically starving himself from probably the majority of the recommended meals, daily. The young rabbit rose from her chair, speaking in somewhat soft but more firm and direct voice, "Tails.. you need to be taking better care of yourself!" She stepped away from her chair and began walking towards him. Tails was taken back from this sudden outburst from her mild-mannered friend. Noticing she was walking closer to him, he started to get a little nervous all of a sudden and tried to speak up, but wasn't able to find his voice. She continued, "I know how much you like to work on your projects, and how very knowledgeable in mechanics and machines you are, and how eager you are to work on them in order to complete them in the fastest time possible, but that doesn't mean to work yourself to the limit and beyond every single day! You need to consider your health as well, I mean just.. just look at you Tails, you're completely exhausted, starving, and messy! It's a good thing to be dedicated and willing to work hard in order to accomplish them all, but it's not worth it if that means putting your health at risk! You need to be able to take care of yourself.. not only that-" She began to speak more softly now, more in her usual tone, standing in front of her friend and continued on, "..not only that, but you need to be able to also have fun too.. you're 10 years old, Tails. You shouldn't just be locking yourself inside all the time to work on those projects constantly.. you should also just.. enjoy being a kid. You should also be having fun with your friends, enjoying the scenery of the beauty these Mystic Ruins hold.. even just, looking at the clouds in the sky can be pretty relaxing, you know.." Cream was now looking into the tired, but intent widened eyes of her friend. She rested one of her hands rested on top of his over the table in comfort and support. She needed a moment or two to breathe from everything she was letting out there for him, guess this was quite a bit to take in right away, and continued to speak. "..It worries me.. it worries ALL of us when you do this to yourself. You may not realize that what you are doing is bad.. but the more times you put things off like this.. the more you begin to forget about doing at all. Like with how you've lately been hiding yourself more and more for the past _year_, to the point where anyone's hardly been able to get in contact with you. It doesn't really help when you don't have a phone.. and sometimes it can be a little harder for us to get in touch with you. Well, maybe not Sonic, since he could be here in a heartbeat anytime, but someone like, well.. me. Mother has been home schooling me for awhile now, and sometimes I'm not always able to go explore or have fun outdoors and sometimes it makes it impossible to talk to anyone, especially you."

For the most part.. Tails mouth was agape the entire time, trying to take in all of the information that his friend just revealed to him. He had no idea how to even begin to think up a way of replying to her. A part of him was saddened and a little hurt to learn of some of this, feeling quite a bit guilty that he'd been less in touch with most of his friends over the past.. _Did.. she say a __**YEAR**__?_ A bigger part of him was still just trying to get over the shock that well.. he was practically getting disciplined and lectured by Cream! One of the most soft-spoken, mild-mannered people he knows! Not to mention she was about two years younger than him, but she reminded him of her mother Vanilla whenever she'd need to lay down the rules or be a little strict to her daughter from time to time. A little part of him felt a little patronized at that fact, but he knew that this was something that was really worrying her from some of the more concerning looks she'd given earlier. She was speaking purely out of concern for a friend, and had the courage to try and let him know what some of her fears were. _I know that sometimes I have.. a habit of working for very long periods of time every so often but.. they can't be THAT bad.. I mean, sometimes.. I have a hard time in wanting to call it quits when really getting into putting something together, but it can't be all that surprising to anyone. I love working on trying to create new devices and machines to help out everyone in times of crisis, and I love trying to modify or recreate the newest models of the Tornado.. I've been doing that ever since I met Sonic. I will admit sometimes I get a little carried away and forget about the time or forget a few daily routines like: Cleaning my fur, reading the paper, watching a little television, going into town every so often for whatever reason whether it was: seeing the sights or retrieving groceries, sleeping? ..e-eating? _His eyes widened in shock a little, starting to realize that a lot of things he used to do he either rarely attends to, or just plain forgets to do them at all. Most of them were things he just did in his free time, but some of them were quite a little more important and required constant attention.. two in particular.. EATING and SLEEPING. _I-I have been eating considerably less recently.. I never really think about it, not when I'm.. working on something.. _Suddenly his stomach growled in response to the sudden thought, like his stomach was making his recent thoughts all the more apparent. He found himself rubbing his eyes a little bit with his free hand and blinked. _The lack of food probably doesn't help the declining sleep I've been losing to all these hours and days and months and apparently a year of constantly thinking up and building more and newer machines in the lab.. maybe I have been going at it a little too much lately? I never realized how much accumulated time I've spent down there before.. it's actually sort of.. unsettling. Even now, all I can really think about is going back down and finishing the work on the Tornado and moving onto the next idea I had.. well, and the cookies Cream brought over now, those are really good. _Despite his increasingly crestfallen disposition, a small hint of laughter escaped from his voice, now realizing how much his daily routines have really just merged into one big daily activity of working in the lab below the workshop. "I'm.. pretty obsessed, huh?" He whispered, basically summing up Cream's concerning pleas. He felt quite upset himself, for letting his love of mechanics and engineering overtake his personal and social needs like this.

Cream took both of his hands in her's, causing him to look up into her gentle brown eyes in confusion and in slight hesitance. She smiled brightly towards him like he liked seeing on her, causing a small blush to creep it's way upon his muzzle. "You're.. very dedicated to you work, but.. that doesn't mean you have to work yourself to death in doing so." She winked, leaning in closer to give her friend a gentle embrace. Tails sat there in a small daze, his blush grew much more, nearly covering any white fur his muzzle had to offer at the sudden affection. "You're only young once, you need to enjoy yourself while you can, especially in these times of peace. If anything happened to you because of your uh.. 'dedication', I think I'd have to come here and take care of you myself. I may be younger than you, but my mother has taught me quite well the importance of staying healthy and taking care of myself with the basics.. so you better start getting it together too.. because well.. you know, I just.. want you to be healthy and everything.. hehe.."

After finally breaking free from his blank, nervous gaze, Tails embraced Cream back, feeling a little better knowing she was here with him and trying to help him out. "Thank you, Cream.. I-I'll try to work more on my um.. 'dedication', I'm sorry for worrying you and the others."

Cream smiled and simply said, "I know." She was beaming with happiness that she was able to this that out to him and convince to try and relax a little more.. well a LOT more. She'd try her best to help him out along the way, maybe they'd be closer friends and be able to spend more time together from now on. Suddenly, she held both of her hands in one of his and began to lift him out of his chair and drag him out of the workshop with him trying to make sure he didn't trip along the way, "Now come on, we're going shopping right now, so you get a nutritious meal instead of cookies tonight! The train's going to be leaving in a few minutes, and we'll be able to catch it if we go now!" He was still a little dazed and trying to keep his balance to avoid any accidents, but he just went along with her plan without arguments.. he was quite hungry after all, maybe he'd have a guest to join him tonight too..

Tails smiled with half-lidded eyes at his young friend, still daydreaming of the warm memory. From that day on, their bond only grew stronger until they were the best of friends they were today. Cream's unconscious body began to shift a little bit, slowly blinking and finally opening her eyes after adjusting to the sunlight. She sat up a little bit, succumbing to a small yawn and looked around slightly, not quite recalling how she ended up sleeping there. Suddenly the memories of being caught in an explosion with Tails surfaced, and she would of panicked.. if something wasn't gently holding onto her hand. She looked up, noticing it was Tails.. looking back at her in a sort of delighted trance, his eyes half lit and a warm smile gracing his features. Her face started to feel quite flushed, starting to fall into a small dreamy trance herself.. although she jumped at Tails sudden expression change, his eyes wide and a large grin and a hint of red on his cheeks. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something until-

"Cream! You're awake!" He quickly wrapped his arms around her in a friendly hug, happy that his friend was now conscious. Her blush just grew darker at the sudden hug, guessing that he must of been quite worried about her.

_Was he.. w-waiting here this whole time? _She closed her eyes, feeling small tears trying to form under her eyes, wrapping her arms around his friend, glad that the both of them were safe. _Tails.. _

"Aw, how cute." Amy remarked softly after witnessing this little scene. Unfortunately, Sonic wasn't really able to enjoy this little situation due to the fact that he still couldn't move! Sonic was feeling rather uncomfortable at being so confined of his freedom that it was starting to get to him a little bit..

"Not to ruin your moment or anything you two, but if it's not too much trouble.. PLEASE get me out of this electric snake's grasp! I can't take it anymore, I need to get running a few dozen laps around the city to make up for this little moment of prison.. this is worse than that cell I was put into from the military a few years ago, at least then I could walk.." Sonic whined, mumbled, pleaded and begged. He really hated to be confined of his movement like this, it was more much worse than the fact that demon fox was able to take him down so easily. All he wanted to do was go and think for a little bit, while making laps around Station Square for the rest of the day.

The three of them laughed at his little outburst, the two girls and the hedgehog getting together while Tails went back to his workshop to the get the necessary tools for removing the 'electric snake' from his brother. Unbeknownst to any of them, a small red glow in the shape of an emerald could be seen briefly fading in and out just below the fox's bangs. A small dark colored smoke emitting from the center of the strange mark, Tails covered his head, once again feeling the recurring pain from earlier but a little more contained this time. _My heads been in pain ever since the encounter with that strange fox.. I'm sure it's just a headache.. but it just.. feels so painful, not as bad as before, but it's making it hard to think.. but I think the worst of it is over now.. _

**Eh, not really the best ending ever, but I think this chapter is looking pretty uh, well.. big. XD This was a fun one to write though, I've never written a chapter this long before, and they seem to keep getting longer with each update. **_**Strange. **_

**Like I said, this chapter was mainly about giving a little more in terms of the depth in Tails' and Cream's relationship. It kind of explains how they started to hang out more, and became the best friends they are in the story. Some bits of mush too, but I sometimes have a hard time being really descriptive and articulate when it comes to writing, but I hope it still turned out okay. The next update I still have to think about.. so I can't really give a little preview. It'll probably start to focus more on the main story with Tails and the Mysterious Fox. He has a name, it just has yet to come up.**

Until then, enjoy. =3 


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